Going Thin On The Pitching

 OK,  so here we are in the first couple week of spring training games and here is what we have:

• Cody Morris out with a lat injury (apparently improving)
• Enyel De Los Santos out with a hamstring (apparently improving)
• Sam Hentges out with a shoulder problem (could put him out for months)
• Aaron Civale limited to one inning in his first start
• Emmanuel Clase has yet to make his first appearance this spring (seems ominous to me).  No one has really said anything.
• I don't know that Stephan has pitched yet, either.  
• Sandlin still may not be right physically.
• Quantrill and Plesac were not sharp in their starts
• Kelly, Barager, Simpson, Diehl and Knight are getting an ominous amount of work (may be nothing but I will not believe, with all the free agent relievers out there, if any of these guys see any appreciable time on the ML roster this year.  Bryan Shaw is a minor league signee.  These guys are AAA and AA depth guys to save our prospects from burning out in the minors and, maybe, to showcase their abilities to international leagues, staying with us only if they can't latch on to a better opportunity

Right now I am real concerned that the Guardians decided to go real cheap in the bullpen this year as far as depth, not even taking guys who are true first line depth guys and, instead, taking second and third line depth guys.

Also not really sure the Guardians will be willing to do what is necessary and use Gaddis, Curry and Battenfield in the bullpen which is where they all belong.  

 I am also not sure that they have a good handle on who would be the best guys to call up if they need a starter and, instead, just run Pilkington, Gaddis and/or Curry out there just because they did it and, frankly, failed at it last year.  

We have a lot of pitching depth but that depth will be tested this year because of the lack of quality free agent signings or doable trades (Puk and Soto) that would have given us some depth.

There are lots of things going on here and the longer it takes for us to see our better relievers from last year the more I fear that we are having more issues than the serious ones we KNOW already that we are having.  

I also don't trust that this front office can pull off a reasonable trade for relief help if we need it and I think we could possibly get robbed because we will be so desperate.

And all because I don't think the FO planned well this off-season and went cheap, possibly because of the uncertainty created by the DSG failure.  

Even last year we were thin, having to get unexpected performances from guys like De Los Santo to keep our bullpen afloat.

Let's hope this all gets under control because the last thing we need this season, especially early, is for Francona to leave his starters in too long...and he WILL leave his starters in too long if he doesn't have confidence in his bullpen.  And speaking of the bullpen, he will overuse the guys he has confidence in, creating a problem later in the season.

Don't want to be a Chicken Little here but even a couple of significant injuries could create a cascade effect that could really hurt our pitching pretty significantly.

Let's hope Francona and the FO has all this under control.  From where I am sitting, however, I think this could start spiraling out of control unless we start getting some really good news on our pitchers soon.